The Phoenix Business Journal is reporting that more pink slips have been sent out at the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, and more are on the way as the financially troubled international business school prepares for a lifeline merger with Arizona State University.
Some Thunderbird staffers were told Friday they were being laid off and their jobs were slated for elimination by year-end. Others are being told they will stay on next year as Thunderbird is melded into Arizona State.
Thunderbird spokesman Bill Jenkins said those decisions were being made by ASU officials as the two schools prepare to merge.
Jenkins said Thunderbird has 184 employees and faculty — down substantially from 300 before the Glendale school's hiring freeze and its current crop of financial troubles.
ASU spokeswoman Sharon Keeler said her school will be making offers to 135 Thunderbird staffers and 31 faculty members to stay on after December.
“This is all but about 50 of the current full-time staff and 8 of the full-time faculty,” Keller says. “After the next 18 months, as the ASU integration is completed, additional reductions are contemplated to complete the cost-efficiency actions needed to preserve and enhance Thunderbird. We are not certain at this time what the end result will be as we work on the integration and as new program needs develop."
Some displaced employees will receive severance packages and career help.
“This is the beginning of the integration phase. Arizona State University is attaining the Thunderbird School of Global Management to advance well-established global education programs with historical track records. We will stabilize these programs and build new programs,” Keeler said.
The prestigious business school has gone through a number of recent layoffs, reorganizations and seen faculty and staff departures as it has faced choppy financial waters and a scuttled joint venture with for-profit Laureate Education Inc. Four Thunderbird board members stepped down in protest over that deal, and others have left in recent months.
The Laureate deal was nixed earlier this year, and this month Thunderbird announced it was finalizing a merger deal with ASU.
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